Feb. 7 – With the support and = coordination of the Embassy of Italy in London, the Italian Cultural Institute launched the “Viva Verdi” event, a week of screenings, panel discussions and conference to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of the most loved Italian composer by the British public. The celebrations opened, in the presence of the Italian Ambassador, Alain Giorgio Maria Economides, with a lecture by Sara Lenton, music critic and commentator for BBC Radio, entitled “Staging Rigoletto”, preceded by the screening of the Rigoletto at the Teatro alla Scala in 1996 with director Riccardo Muti. Also coming up: projections of valuable archive material made available by Rai Teche; and conferences by British historian Daniel Snowman, by the artistic director of the Roma Opera, Alessio Vlad, and by Gaia Servadio, writer andd curator the entire project.
